The Bush Victory in Iraq

George Bush has already won a victory in Iraq, and we're not
talking about weapons inspectors' access inside the country.

The administration's beating of the war drums has drowned
out the dominant stories of two months ago -- the corporate scandals and
failing economy.

The scandals continue to unfold, in ever more gory detail.
In recent weeks, Chainsaw Al Dunlap has settled charges of financial
manipulation, former GE CEO Jack Welch has renounced his obscene retirement
perks, and new information surfaces almost daily on the tens of millions of
dollars of shady loans and perks that Tyco granted to its executives.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy continues to struggle.
Unemployment remains high by recent standards. The stock market collapse has
eaten away the retirement savings of tens of millions of people. Many experts
believe the economy may return to recession.

The media still report on all of this, but not with the
banner headlines of a few months ago.

Now, the coverage is focused on Iraq. While the
administration has taken some lumps from those who advocate a common-sense
resistance to military unilateralism and a dangerous and illegal doctrine of
preemptive war, it has successfully changed the primary topic of political
conversation in the United States. From a subject that had the administration
on the defensive -- especially as revelations continued of more and more
improper or unethical actions at Dick Cheney's Halliburton -- the focus is now
on a topic that plays to the administration's strengths and ability to control
information.

Of course, external events might have forced such a shift.
But they did not. The administration has abandoned its claims that Iraq is
involved with global terrorism. And whatever the truth about Iraq's efforts to
build nuclear weaponry, there is absolutely no evidence that there has been a
step-up in the Iraqi nuclear program or that the country is anywhere near
construction of a nuclear bomb.

In short, not only is there no evidence of an imminent
threat from Iraq against the United States, nothing has changed in the recent
period to suggest Iraq is anywhere near being a threat to the U.S.

It is the United States that has chosen to force the issue.
The fanatical faction in the Bush Pentagon and White House (still
counterbalanced more effectively by dissident Republicans than the Democratic
Party) wants to put the United States on permanent war footing, with Iraq and
Afghanistan just the beginning.

One not-so-incidental impact of the permanent war society
is that war talk permanently displaces debate over economic and social justice.

The
administration has already had its first victory in Iraq, simply by threatening
to go to war. If the American people permit the Bush team to launch a war, we
can be sure of long-term defeat for the people on the American homefront,
irrespective of the outcome on the battlefield.

Russell
Mokhiberis editor of the Washington,
D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the
Washington, D.C.-basedMultinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The
Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
Courage Press, 1999;http://www.corporatepredators.org).